The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-02-12


untenable assumptions. Is the Bib
authority with Br. Merrill &d2 We do nc
ask the question to suggest doubt. Nose
says: "In the beginning ODD created th
heavens and the EARTH" This is biblica
proof. Science demonstrates also the be
ginning of our world order. Chemistr-
proves that atoms and molecules ar
manufactured articles, and that they ar
not eternal, so says Clerk Maxwell. Ge
ology shows when and where vepetabl,
and animal life or forms 6rst appeared
Geology and archaeology show the com
paratively recent origin OF man. Are al
the conclusions of science 10 be rejected
in order to evade the evidence that God
created the universe in the beginning
and that his creation of nature was not a
miracle?
5. Br. Merrifield in his last article has
changed his proposition from creation to
creation in the absolute and affirms this
had no beginning. Thereis no absolute
creation. All creation is relative. We're
an absolute creation possible it would
have no beginning. But mo such crea-
tion is possible.
There is but one absolute being, and
that Being is God. All other beings and
things are relative, and the Bible, philos-
ophy and science prove they had be-
ginning in time. We think Br. Merrifeld
has confounded two very Different terms
and ideas in his thinking and reasoning,
= e., the absolute with the real. Nature,
the universe and man are real, but they
are not absolute; they are all dependant
and relative. for they only exist and can
only exist in relations and under condi-
tions. God is infinite, absolute and un-
conditioned. He existed before, and as
the cause of all other beings, and they
have derived their being from him.
6. We admit that absolute reason and
eternal life had no beginning, for they are
divine attributes, and not divine actions,
as Br. Merrifield appears to assume. But
the action of these attribntes, their mani
festation and revelation in creative work.
had beginning. Our brother admits
that atoms, as we cognize them, MOLE
cules, plants, animals and men, had be-
ginning-that they are creatures-were
created, and asserts that no denial of this
is even implied in his article. If this be
SO, we have not understood and can not
understand his article. What does he
mean by creation, nature, the universe,
if he does not refer to the universe as we
know ita Does be aeesS Sd, fha abso:s
Lutte, the infinite, ths eternal, when he
speaks OF creation and the universe?
Then God is his own creator, his own
creation, and his own universe. If this
is his meaning, we admit that this crea-
ton and this universe had no beginning
and will have no end.
7. We do not undertake to vindicate
the prevailing theology as rational, but
the prevailing theology and the Biblical
doctrine of creation are not identical.
8. We deny with Br. Merrifsld that
creation is from nothing, but do not agree
with him that creation is by God from his
own eternal substance. God did not make
atoms, plants and animals of part of
himself. He created them by an act of
will, not from nothing, not from his own
substance. not from previously existing
material, but by an act OF power. Crea-
ton is Gods thought, Gods act, and not
a part of Gods substance. Mans thought
is an act Of mind, and not part of the
substance of mind. When man writes
book, it is his creation, not part of his
spiritual substance and being. SO Gods
creation is his act, his thought. but it is
not God, nor part OF God, nor from the
substance OF God. Br. Merrifeld's
theory that God made the universe out
of himself, and from a part Of his own
eternal substance makes everything God
or part of God. II his theory is true
every plant. atom, flower, insect, animal,
man is divine, infinite, perfect, self-exis-
tent, eternal, because they are from and
of Gods eternal substance. Certainly
our brother does not and cannot believe
this. God is distinct from his creation
and universe. They are finite, He is in
finite; they are material, He is spiritual;
they are temporal, He is eternal. His
existence is uncaused; they are caused by
bis creative act. He is self-existent; they
derived their existence from Him.
8. The only universe we profess to
know anything about is the one in which
we now live, and of which, in the material
organism, we are part. This universe
Br. Merrifield admits is a creation, had a
beginning, was made in time. 1t is this
universe that our brother admits had a
beginning, that we regard as supernat-
ural creations creative miracle-an act
above nature, which caused nature, by a
power superior to nature and therefore
supernatural.
The existence of God makes a miracle
possible, and human testimony proves
that miracles are facts of history.
IT is said that whenever an eruption